Premiership: Tottenham Hotspur 0 - 0 Aston Villa

Tottenham fans have waited more than a decade for a hint that their team was returning with conviction to the upper echelons of football. And, in Martin Jol - in charge for the fiftieth time in this game - they believe they have found a manager who instills that very quality in the squad. Spurs were all measured calm here, passing with accuracy and delicacy. They ran into space cleverly and created pretty patterns all over the pitch. And, buoyed earlier by the disappointment of their neighbors Arsenal, they left with a meager point when they should have had all three. They must now hope that Liverpool’s momentum - of which they were on the receiving end last weekend - will dry up against Manchester United today and the two teams share the points. The danger is they will look like the classiest also-rans in the Premiership.

From the outset, Villa played like a team who do not enjoy coming to White Hart Lane - like a team who were walloped here 5-1 last season. The attacks were relentless - and fruitless. Jermain Defoe, Edgar Davids and Michael Carrick all had shots in the first quarter of an hour, the latter banging it horribly high from 30 yards out. Defoe stretched Thomas Sorensen and Davids put a left-foot thunderbolt into the side netting. Villa, meanwhile, struggled to cross the halfway line.

With Lee Yong-Pyo overlapping on the left alongside Teemu Tainio and Carrick’s slide-rule passing consistently finding Jermaine Jenas and Defoe, Tottenham turned Villa almost at will. Stephen Kelly went only a foot over from 35 yards and Villa looked jittery. Tainio then ran on to Carrick’s beautifully weighted chip and lobbed it only inches over Sorensen and the bar.

Villa defended desperately. James Milner, in his hundredth league game, brought down Davids in full flight but escaped a booking. Gareth Barry did well to get in a boot as Defoe closed on the ball in the area.

Robbie Keane came agonizingly close, Sorensen stretching upwards to the limit; then, moments later, just before the break, Jenas was carried off after an accidental clash of heads with Juan Pablo Angel. It was only the only sour note of a classy session for Spurs.

Gavin McCann’s stationary right leg was in exactly the right place when Tainio put maximum beef into a header from Carrick’s corner as the Tottenham onslaught continued in the second half.

Michael Brown, making his fiftieth appearance for Spurs (and 300th in the League), came on for Davids, who looked spent after an hour’s typical exertion. He has done well, at 32, to keep up with the hectic schedule in his first season here.

As Tottenham waited for the break they had worked so assiduously for, Milan Baros broke clear and scuffed an edgy shot miles wide. Steve Davis, too, made a mess of a shot - then Spurs resumed their clinical examination of Villa’s ragged defense.

The finish was frenetic. Carrick nearly took Sorensen’s hands off with a scorching drive and Tainio came close to putting the rebound in. Barry brought down Aaron Lennon in full view of the referee and was rightly booked. Moments later he did it again - and off he went. Stupid boy.

Michael Dawson, Brown and Ledley King came so close at the end. But Villa, somehow, survived. Tottenham must wait a little longer for confirmation of their return to the very top.

Man of the match: Michael Carrick

Just gets better - from a pretty high plateau. His passing was again sharp, intelligent and beautifully timed. He creates space masterfully and still does his share of the defensive work.